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Unblock Al Jazeera, nothing to install, no account

When Al Jazeera will not load, the decision was made on the network you are connected to, not at aljazeera.com. TrickyBird opens it from a browser tab: paste the address, press Launch, and the page comes up in the same tab through TrickyBird’s own address, with nothing to install and no account to create.

On most networks this is category filtering rather than anything aimed at Al Jazeera. News sits in a category a filter can switch off at once, and the reason a network does that is rarely about the outlet itself. In mainland China the block is national instead: GreatFire’s page for aljazeera.com reads “It’s blocked”, its record of interference with the site goes back to 7 May 2012, and its most recent conclusive test found the site blocked.

A news front page is the hardest thing on a site like this to carry, and it is the first thing you would notice going wrong. Through TrickyBird it arrives whole, headlines and photographs together, and it reads the way it reads on a direct visit. We went through it on a desktop, search included.

What to expect from Al Jazeera

The front page arrives whole, headlines and photographs together, and it reads the way it does on a direct visit. A search comes back with real results. We went through it on a desktop.

Is aljazeera.com blocked on your network?

The check asks aljazeera.com for one small file directly from your connection, not through TrickyBird, so your network can see that request like any direct visit.

One of our addresses, with the site’s encoded into it

The site loads in the tab you are already in, and this address will not always look the same, since sometimes it is only numbers.

How does TrickyBird open Al Jazeera?

Your browser talks to TrickyBird, which fetches Al Jazeera and rewrites what comes back: every headline, photograph, and background request in the page points at TrickyBird instead. A small script stays in the tab to catch what loads as you open a report or run a search. Your browser does not connect to Al Jazeera. Its requests go to one of our own addresses, which carries Al Jazeera’s address inside it, encoded rather than spelled out.

The front page is dozens of separate pieces stitched together: headlines, summaries, photographs, and links into every section. Drop a script or a stylesheet on the way and what comes back is visibly thinner than the real thing. Through TrickyBird it arrives whole.

On the network that actually blocks Al Jazeera, this is what keeps the page from stalling. Every request it makes stays on TrickyBird’s address, so no part of it waits on a connection the network would refuse.

What opens on Al Jazeera through TrickyBird?

Whatever Al Jazeera shows a reader who is not signed in, which is all of it. The site is free to read, so the front page, the News section, and individual reports with their photographs are there. Search is the surface a proxy most often hands back empty, so we ran one ourselves rather than assume: the results come back with their thumbnails, as links you can follow into the site.

There is nothing to install on your side and no TrickyBird account to make, so a device you are not allowed to change still opens the site. A web proxy is the lighter tool here: it opens 1 site in a browser tab, where a VPN reroutes the whole device and has to be installed before it can do anything. The other news sites our tests cover have pages of their own: BBC, The Guardian, and DW.

TrickyBird is for reaching a public site your network blocks, and for keeping your IP address away from that site. It is not a way past paywalls or copyright.

Is your Al Jazeera reading private through TrickyBird?

Al Jazeera is answering a connection from TrickyBird, so your IP address never reaches it. Your network sees the same thing from the other side, a connection to TrickyBird, because your browser does not connect to aljazeera.com and that address travels encoded rather than spelled out inside one of ours.

On our side, the edge keeps a short access log to run the service and stop abuse: a shortened form of your IP address, the hostname of the site you connected to, and basic response details, kept for at most 48 hours. Which reports you opened is not recorded, and there is no TrickyBird account for any of it to attach to. Our privacy page has the full picture.

Questions

Does the whole front page load, or a stripped-down version?

The whole page. In our own checks it comes through with its headlines, its summaries, its photographs and its links into every section, and it reads the way it reads on a direct visit. A proxy that drops a script or a stylesheet on the way hands you a visibly thinner page, and that is not what arrives here.

Does Al Jazeera search work through TrickyBird?

Yes. Search breaks first when a proxy mishandles a query string, so it is the surface we made a point of running ourselves. Through TrickyBird a search comes back with its results and their thumbnails, and each result is a real link you can follow into the site, the same as on a direct visit.

Do I need an Al Jazeera account to read?

No. Al Jazeera is free to read, so whatever it shows a reader who is not signed in is what arrives through TrickyBird, and TrickyBird has no sign-up of its own. You paste the address, press Launch, and read.

Is Al Jazeera blocked in mainland China?

Yes. GreatFire’s page for aljazeera.com reads “It’s blocked”, its record of interference with the site in mainland China goes back to 7 May 2012, and its most recent conclusive test found the site blocked. That record is long rather than dense, so we quote the latest conclusive test rather than a run of them. The tests are country-level, not a reading of one network.

Does it work on a device you are not allowed to install software on?

Yes. It all happens inside a browser tab, so there is no installer to run and no admin password to find. That is what makes it usable on a work network or a borrowed computer where nothing new can be added.

Is opening Al Jazeera through TrickyBird legal?

This is general information, not legal advice. Reaching a public news site is usually a question of your network’s or your employer’s rules rather than the law, and those rules differ by place. Mainland China, where Al Jazeera is blocked nationally, is a different situation from a filter at the office. Check the policy you are under, and do not use TrickyBird for piracy or to get past paywalls.

Other sites people unblock

Open Al Jazeera now

Press the button and the site opens in this tab. You do not need to install anything or create an account.